Author Description

For deeper, more loyal customer relationships and enhanced profit margins, companies must actually live the brands they sell. This approach is called integrated branding and it s not just a communications strategy. A company must demonstrate to itself and its customers that its external brand image is a reflection of the company itself. The brand and the company are inseparable, and this realization must pervade the entire organization, from new product development to human resource management. Integrated branding is a way of operating, an overall way of doing business, and a way to make certain a company s products are based on the right answers to two mutually reinforcing questions: What do customers value? and What does the company do best in relation to what customers want?. The tools to accomplish these goals are called drivers. In this updated edition of their acclaimed guide, LePla and Parker show clearly and comprehensively how drivers work and how to apply them. Also included are discussions of how to determine brand structure, how an integrated brand applies to marketing communications and how integrated brands can help companies when they go public.